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CHIP Priority Area – Housing and Houselessness

Access to housing is a major influence on health and health outcomes.

In this priority area, two goals were selected.

Goal 1 – Houseless Strategies: Evaluate the community’s collective response to urban camping, (both the impact to the individuals who are camping and the environments in which they are camping), to develop collaborative and strategic interventions that will result in more affordable, accessible housing, adequate shelter facilities, and fewer individuals experiencing houselessness.


Goal 1 – Houseless Strategies

Evaluate the community’s collective response to urban camping, (both the impact to the individuals who are camping and the environments in which they are camping), to develop collaborative and strategic interventions that will result in more affordable, accessible housing, adequate shelter facilities, and fewer individuals experiencing houselessness.

Leadership

Goal 1 is overseen by Missoula Public Health.

Objectives and Strategies

Objective 1: Evaluate and enhance our community’s strategies and initiatives related to housing and houselessness to develop a new community strategy to make houselessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in Missoula.

Community partners selected the following strategies to achieve this:

  • Convene a group of local organizations and decisionmakers.
  • Compare and contrast strategies used by other cities and communities.

Objective 2: Explore providing tenants in eviction court with legal counsel as a part of tenants Right-to-Counsel and evaluate success and outcomes of pilot program to determine what, if any, recommendations are feasible and effective.

Community partners selected the following strategies to achieve this:

  • Establish pilot program to evaluate the impact of Right-to-Counsel on housing retention.